Friday, January 26, 2007

The Corner.

Just like the topic of good old M. Night around the workplace, my honorable co-workers seem to have issues with yet another hero of mine, U2’s The Edge. Recently, they spent an afternoon poking fun at a man who’s overcome so much—being in Bono’s shadow all the time, enduring the “Numb” video, and of course there’s the pilgrim hat and pony tail.

Now, The Edge (and yes, his mother does call him that) is a lean, mean, guitar-playing, falsetto-singing machine. I love this guy for several reasons. For one, he—like Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive—adheres to my theory of the uniform. The Edge always perfectly pulls off the beanie, graphic tee, boot cut jeans, and black low top Converse All Stars. I swear this guy keeps a little Guatemalan lady in his closet who knits him a new perfectly fitting super-beanie on a daily basis.

The Edge is also what I’d call a fairly humble dude. How do I know this? First the guy seems to have no prob constantly stepping back and letting Bono do his thing. Second, he totally has sentiment; I mean to this day, he plays the same signature Gibson that you see him rocking in U2’s very first music video.

Let’s face it, the only thing that’s kind of weird about the guy is his nickname, and the only thing that’s weird about the nickname is the The. All I’m trying to say is that if it was just Edge instead of The Edge my feisty co-workers wouldn’t have a problem (but you’ve got to admit that Edge just feels like it’s missing something). I do know this: a couple weeks ago on MLK Day, when my bro reminded me to crank up some Pride (In the Name of Love) for the crowd—I didn’t hear any complaints.

I also didn’t hear any complaints when I showed the dudes this video. I caught a peek of this vid at the gym last week. I was listening to my Shuffle, when I caught a glimpse of it on the screen. I didn’t even know it was a U2 video, the visuals just compelled me to plug my earbuds into the gym’s sound system. Everyone I’ve shown this video to has claimed that it’s, and I quote, “the best music video ever”. It’s definitely an editorial and archival masterpiece, and easily ranks with the best of music videos.

Last week, a friendly neighborhood co-worker oddly referred to me as The Corner. I responded with an obligatory “Huh?” and he proceeded to explain, “You’re like two Edges coming together.” Now I don’t know if it was meant to be a slam or what, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna take it as a compliment.